Research Project in Counseling Kabo Oarabile Thapelo University of Botswana CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1 The number of passion killings among the youths have increased rapidly over the last decade to date

Research Project in Counseling Kabo Oarabile Thapelo University of Botswana CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1 The number of passion killings among the youths have increased rapidly over the last decade to date

Research Project in Counseling
Kabo Oarabile Thapelo
University of Botswana

CHAPTER
INTRODUCTION
1 The number of passion killings among the youths have increased rapidly over the last decade to date. No day passes by without any report of passion killings in our great nation of Botswana. In mot cases, women are in the forefront of becoming victims of such a grueling, heartbreaking carnages. It is very vital and paramount to examine the causes of passion killings among the youths as it does not only violate human rights but also denies human dignity of the individual and hurts human development.

This chapter looks at “exploring passion killings and its implications by first presenting the background of violence against women (VAW). The chapter then provides the rationale for conducting the study and presents clearly the problem statement relating to the analysis. Many families are victims of passion killings, and the country is living in awe of such heartbreaking phenomenon. This passion killings occurs in different forms from stabbing, beheading and burying to all sorts of evil doings.

Background Study
According to (Agency, 2005) over two thirds of women in Botswana (67%) have been victims of some form of gender violence in their era, including partner and non-partner violence. A smaller, but still high, proportion of men (44%) admit to perpetrating violence against women. Nearly one third of women (29%) experienced violence perpetrated by an intimate partner in the 12 months. In contrast, only 1.2% of women reported cases of GBV to the police in the same period. Thus, the prevalence of GBV reported in the survey is 24 times higher than that reported to the police. This suggests that levels of GBV are far higher than those recorded in official statistics.
Most of the violence conveyed occurs within intimate relationships. About three in every five women (62%) experienced or have been a victim of violence in an intimate relationship while about half of the men (48%) admitted to perpetrating intimate partner violence (IPV). Emotional violence is the most common form of IPV experienced by women (45%) and perpetrated by men (37%) in the sample in their lifetime (Setsiba, 2005) . all this form of violence leads to passion killings and are the driving forces towards human massacre.

Most of the passion killings occur when the other partner wants out of a relationship whilst others are a result of jealousy. According to Botswana Police Service statistics, 747 people were murdered by those who claimed to love them since 2003. The statistics show that females account for the largest number of victims – 689, compared to men’s 57. Former President Festus Mogae has come out amenably to condemn the love related murders, or passion killings, that he terms as hatred killings, and says he is disappointed by judges, police and women over the killings.

(Standard, 2015) During the Global Commission on Elections, Democracy and Security, Former President Mogae stated that he was concerned about the current domestic viciousness against women, adding that he was mostly saddened by the leniency by judges and police when handling such cases. He urged people to desist from referring to the crimes as passion killings and suggested rather calling them “hatred killings”. “There is no passion in these monstrous criminalities. You can’t refer to these crimes as passion killings when they use knives to slay women,” he declared. “This is hatred killing.” He said.
Statement of the problem
Violence against women is perhaps the most disgraceful human rights violation and it is the most prevalent. If it continues, the country cannot claim to be making real progress towards equality, development and peace and upliftment of human rights. Despite awareness, intervention and strategies to try and curb violence against women, passion killings remains a global public and human rights issue, and continues to impact the physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health of women (Desai, 2013)
In Botswana, there has been an increase in men’s violence against women resulting in murder-suicide of the couple widely known as ‘passion killing’ The rate of the gender-based violence (GBV) in Botswana is shocking and unbelievable; the government and all key stakeholders are concerned and coming up with interventions to alleviate the cause of concern

Purpose of the study
The purpose of this study is to explore causes of passion killing and its implications on the youth of Botswana.

Main Research Question
What is the causes of passion killing on the youth of Botswana and its implications?
Sub questions:
? How do youth of Botswana describe the incidence of ‘passion killings’ in the country?
? How do youth of Botswana perceive the influence of gender on ‘passion killing’ in the country?
? What are the major causes of passion killings in the country and what perpetuates to that?
? What are some of the interventions put forward by the government and non- governmental organizations in alleviating passion killings?

Significance of the Study
First and foremost, this study should fill the gap in literature by providing empirical evidence through qualitative information about the universality of passion killings among young people in Botswana.
Secondly, this study could augment the existing body of knowledge on related issues like intimate partner violence and violence against women in our country and beyond.
Thirdly, the findings and references of this research will help in enhancing policy and practice of the government in combating the ‘plague’ of passion killings in Botswana. In addition, the findings could motivate a re-appraisal of existing strategies and interventions which aim to improve the livelihood of youth in the country and their safety.

Delimitations of the study
Initially, this study will confine itself to interviewing youth of Botswana based in Gaborone (Tlokweng Area) and only a few will be chosen to take part in the research. The research questions will be randomly

Definitions of terms
? Gender Based Violence- is any act that is perpetuated against a person’s will and is based on Gender norms and unequal power relationships.
It encompasses threats of violence and coercion. It can be physical, emotional, psychological or sexual in nature as it inflicts harm on people. Gender Based Violence is a violation of human rights and it denies the human dignity of the individual and hurts human development.
? Violence- the premeditated use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, and psychological harm
? Passion killing is demarcated as murder because of sudden anger or heartbreak, which means the perpetrator could have acted in a different way if they were not angry or heartbroken. This usually ascends in common assault, assault by threat, assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, murder or attempted murder cases